PROMOTION OF WOMEN
The promotion of women to senior positions in the legal profession is of keen interest to AWLA. The retention and advancement of women lawyers is also a key issue in the broader legal community – with NZLS reporting that while approximately 61% of people working in firms with more than one practitioner are women, women make up less than 31% of partners or directors in those firms.
Visibility of the proportion of women in partnership across a range of firms is an important part of drawing attention and accountability to the progress that is, or is not, being made to address this inequity.
For this reason, AWLA has compiled information about the proportion of women partners across a range of firms, and their promotion in recent years, in the below table.
The first version of this table was published in 2020 and reflected a breakdown of promotions since 1 January 2015. This is now our fifth iteration of this table, to reflect a breakdown of promotions since 1 July 2017. AWLA is committed to keeping the data updated on annual basis as at 1 July.
Total partnership numbers are based on publicly available information on each firm’s website. To ensure that our data accurately reflects the work that firms may have been doing in recent years to promote more women to partnership (either internally or through lateral hires), we asked each firm to provide us directly with information about the numbers of partners promoted since 1 July 2017 and the proportion of these that are women. Firms are provided the opportunity to provide us with their most up to date figures. This year we included 38 firms in our survey, with a 68% response rate.
In previous years, we have asked each firm to provide a breakdown of how many partners are non-equity partners, and how many of those non-equity partners are women. This year, we asked firms an additional question – ‘how many full-equity partners do you have that are women?’. We consider this to be an important statistic to be able to share as typically, a full-equity partner has a stronger influence on decision making within a firm and we consider that it is important that women are in positions of influence. In this year’s survey results, we are pleased to share that 13 of the firms asked, provided us with this statistic. We commend firms for their transparency and commitment to remaining accountable.
Firms are also asked whether they are a a signatory of NZLS’s Gender Equality Charter. Where a firm has not responded, we obtain the information directly from the NZLS website which lists the signatories. NZLS reports that since 2018, 161 legal workplaces have signed up to the charter, if you would like to check whether a legal workplace is a signatory, you can find the information at lawsociety.org.nz. Under the Charter, signatories commit to actively working to increase gender equality and inclusion in senior roles.
We hope that this information is useful to you. From our perspective, it shows that we still have a long way to go to achieve gender parity in partnership in the legal profession, but there is also some good work being done to achieve this goal.
If you have any questions or comments about the information on this page – including any suggestions about other firms you think we should include – please contact president@awla.nz.
Further information about the basis of reporting is at the bottom of this page.
Promotion of Women 2024
| wdt_ID | Firm | Total Partners | Women Partners | % Total Women Partners | Total New Partners (Since 1 Jul 2017) | Total New Women Partners (Since 1 Jul 2017) | % Total New Women Partners (since 1 Jul 2017) | % Women Partners that are Non-Equity Partners | % Men Partners that are Non-Equity Partners | Number of full-equity partners who are women | Gender Equality Charter Signatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapman Tripp | 54 | 21 | 39 | 20 | 10 | 50 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 2 | Minter Ellison Rudd Watts | 48 | 18 | 38 | 20 | 10 | 50 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 3 | Bell Gully | 47 | 17 | 36 | 25 | 12 | 48 | 0% | 0% | 17 | ✔ |
| 4 | Simpson Grierson | 45 | 18 | 40 | 16 | 11 | 68 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 5 | Buddle Findlay | 49 | 15 | 31 | 19 | 8 | 61 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 6 | Duncan Cotterill | 50 | 17 | 34 | 23 | 12 | 52 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 7 | Russell McVeagh | 47 | 14 | 29 | 25 | 10 | 40 | 0% | 0% | 14 | ✔ |
| 8 | Dentons Kensington Swan | 38 | 13 | 34 | 19 | 8 | 42 | 0% | 0% | 13 | ✔ |
| 9 | Meredith Connell | 33 | 13 | 39 | 34 | 16 | 47 | 36% | 64% | 9 | ✔ |
| 10 | Anthony Harper | 33 | 10 | 30 | 15 | 5 | 33 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 11 | Lane Neave | 25 | 6 | 24 | 12 | 2 | 16 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 12 | Tompkins Wake | 33 | 13 | 39 | 21 | 10 | 48 | 45% | 55% | 5 | ✔ |
| 13 | DLA Piper | 21 | 7 | 33 | 14 | 6 | 43 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 14 | Anderson Lloyd | 29 | 13 | 44 | n/a | - | n/a | 0% | n/a | 13 | ✔ |
| 15 | Wynn Williams | 27 | 13 | 48 | 14 | 7 | 50 | 46% | 54% | 7 | ✔ |
| 16 | Hesketh Henry | 18 | 8 | 44 | 11 | 6 | 54 | 67% | 33% | 4 | ✔ |
| 17 | Greenwood Roche | 15 | 5 | 33 | 8 | 4 | 50 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 18 | McVeagh Fleming | 18 | 3 | 17 | 10 | 2 | 20 | 12.5% | 87.5% | 2 | ✘ |
| 19 | Glaister Ennor | 12 | 6 | 50 | 7 | 4 | 57 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✘ |
| 20 | Martelli McKegg | 12 | 8 | 67 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 21 | Mayne Wetherell | 12 | 3 | 25 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 22 | Lowndes Jordan | 7 | 2 | 29 | 2 | 2 | 100 | 33% | 67% | 1 | ✔ |
| 23 | Hudson Gavin Martin | 7 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 50 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 24 | Grimshaw & Co | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | n/a | n/a | n/a | - | ✘ |
| 25 | Turner Hopkins | 5 | 1 | 20 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✘ |
| 26 | Lee Salmon Long | 6 | 2 | 33 | - | - | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✘ |
| 27 | Haigh Lyon | 5 | 2 | 40 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✘ |
| 28 | Harmos Horton Lusk | 5 | 2 | 40 | - | - | n/a | n/a | n/a | - | ✘ |
| 29 | Wilson Harle | 4 | 1 | 25 | 2 | 1 | 50 | 0% | 0% | 1 | ✘ |
| 30 | Gilbert Walker | 4 | 2 | 50 | 2 | 1 | 50 | 50% | 50% | 1 | ✔ |
| 31 | Rice Speir | 3 | 1 | 33 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 32 | Morris Legal | 2 | 2 | 100 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✘ |
| 34 | Webb Henderson | 8 | 2 | 25 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✔ |
| 35 | Wotton + Kearney | 15 | 6 | 40 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 0% | n/a | 6 | ✔ |
| 36 | Denham Bramwell Lawyers | 7 | 6 | 86 | 5 | 5 | 100 | n/a | n/a | 2 | ✘ |
| 37 | James & Wells (NZ firm only) | 9 | 2 | 22 | 4 | 2 | 50 | 50% | 50% | 0 | ✘ |
| 38 | Fee Langston | 7 | 4 | 57 | 2 | 1 | 50 | 67% | 33% | 2 | ✔ |
| 39 | |||||||||||
| Firm | Total Partners | Women Partners | % Total Women Partners | Total New Partners (Since 1 Jul 2017) | Total New Women Partners (Since 1 Jul 2017) | % Total New Women Partners (since 1 Jul 2017) | % Women Partners that are Non-Equity Partners | % Men Partners that are Non-Equity Partners | Number of full-equity partners who are women | Gender Equality Charter Signatory |
Key:
| black | 0-19% |
| red | 20-29% |
| orange | 30-39% |
| yellow | 40-49% |
| green | 50-100% |
| grey | Did not respond or declined to participate |
Basis of reporting:
- Total partner numbers are current as at 1 November 2024 as published on firms’ websites or otherwise reported to AWLA.
- Information regarding promotions since 1 July 2017, non-equity and full-equity partnership was received between 10 October 2024 and 1 November 2024 and is current as at receipt.
- Gender Equality Charter signatory status is current as at 5 November 2024 as published on the NZLS website.
- Firms are reported in order of size from largest partnership to smallest.